If Porn Really Were For Women by Richard Freeman (BNI May 2008)

     If I were to believe all that I read on the internet, it would appear 
that women down under were really getting into not only acting in but watching 
porn these days, even if no women we know (who aren't writing for BNI) will 
readily admit to this. But then how many Aussies do we know, other than Christine 
Amphlette?
     A new book has been released in Australia, which exposes the world of 
pornography, who's doing it and what they are watching, looking at, reading and 
clicking on.
     The traditional stereotype of a porn user is a dysfunctional middle aged 
man in a grubby raincoat, but that is being challenged by an unlikely 
newcomer to the scene, according to a new book on pornography in Australia.
     "That newcomer," says author Catharine Lumby, "is likely to be a woman 
aged under 35 who lives in the suburbs, votes for a progressive party like the 
Greens, is in a monogamous relationship with a man and earns slightly more 
than average."
     The book puts to bed a number of myths about who's doing pornography in 
Australia and what they are watching, looking at, reading and clicking on.
     These include the belief that "no sane woman" would look at pornography 
unless she was forced to by a male partner, Lumby says.
     "One of the myths [about pornography] suggests that women aren't 
consumers but we have very clear evidence that there's a growing proportion of porn 
consumers who are women," she says.
     "The statistics are so high now that that (that myth) doesn't seem 
correct."
     The book is the result of a three-year study by Lumby and fellow 
academics Alan McKee and Katherine Albury, who describe it as "the first piece of 
serious research" carried out on pornography in Australia.
     It looks at current trends in pornography consumption and production 
based on a survey of more than 1,000 Australians.
     Lumby says men continue to outnumber women as consumers of pornography�
by about four to one�and many women still consider pornography to be wrong.
     However, her study and a 2003 report on Sex in Australia suggest that 
the difference is narrowing.
     "Certainly there is evidence in our survey, and the 2003... survey 
indicates, that in the age groups under 40 we are seeing a greater proportion of 
women consuming X-rated material," she says.
     Of the pornography consumers interviewed for The Porn Report, 17 per 
cent were women and 82 per cent were male (this compared to 90 per cent men in a 
1996 survey). Some people did not answer the question.
     Fifty-four per cent of consumers were aged 19-35, 77 per cent were 
heterosexual and 55 per cent were in a monogamous relationship.

     Lumby says research indicates that women who consume pornography favor 
watching DVDs on a laptop in the privacy of their home and also like to watch 
porn with a partner.
     Curiously, the new female porn consumer is more likely than her male 
counterpart to want to see idealized body types featured in pornography.
     "There's strong evidence that for a lot of male consumers it's looking 
at 'real' looking women that turns them on," Lumby says.
     "Interestingly, more women preferred 'fantasy porn', which is the 
glossy, Penthouse style porn, in which women are more likely to have fake breasts 
and toned bodies and the men are more likely to be the handsome hunk."
     However, women who consume pornography share a "strong aversion" to 
pornography showing violence, abuse or rape.
     "It's definitely fair to say from our survey and when we looked at all 
the other literature that there's a strong movement against violence or sexual 

violence," Lumby says.
     Women also appear to be taking a lead from socialite Paris Hilton and 
embracing their inner porn star with DIY porn.
     A growing number of women are using the internet to post images and 
videos of themselves performing sex acts, Lumby says.
     She says there are two big drivers for this new interest in pornography 
by women: feminism and the internet.
     The traditional feminist line said that all porn was bad and exploited 
women. But the new generation of Gen X feminists embraced an aggressive form of 
sexuality characterized by so-called "raunch culture" and the "Riot Grrrl" 
movement, an underground feminist punk movement founded in the early 1990s.
     This shift championed female sexuality, bringing it into the mainstream 
and saying it was okay for women to indulge in a taste for porn�as long as it 
was on their own terms.
     Technology has also opened up a new world of pornographic possibility 
for women, says Lumby.
     "It's very clear that what's driven this is technology," she says.
     "Technology has made viewing much more domesticated �you can be watching 
a DVD on your laptop so you can have some privacy.
     "And the internet gives people access... it's allowed women, if they are 
interested, to do it in a comfortable setting, whereas before they had to go 
into some adult bookshop or a greasy cinema. Understandably a lot of women 
were repelled by that sort of environment."
     The internet also gave women control, which may explain the popularity 
of DIY, she says.
     "A lot of women appearing in pornography are not doing it for commercial 
gain, they're doing it because they're exhibitionists.
     "They make material either by themselves or with partners and put it up 
on the internet, and there's been a huge growth in that."
     Women have also influenced the sort of pornography being produced and 
used by men, she says.
     "What we've seen since the 80s both on a commercial and amateur basis 
more women are involved in porn production... and those women have had a big ... 
impact on the ethics and the way pornography is made."
     She says women have probably also had a hand in the mainstream backlash 
against violent and coercive pornography.
     "I suspect that this is because of education by feminists and public 
health professionals and other people concerned about violence against women," 
she says.
     Certainly something strange seems to be happening with women these days�
at least to a geezer like myself, who came of age when Barbie really was a 
teenager, albeit a highly developed one, computers all used key punched cards, 
and, so far as I know, no one shaved their pubes unless they were giving birth. 
     Recently, everyone on the cable news networks was talking about high 
school girls posting nude photos of themselves on their cell phones, and sending 
them to all of their lucky friends. Sadly, I have neither a cell phone nor 
teenage friends, so I'm just SOL. Nothing like this ever happened back in the 
Airbrushed Years, though if it had, I strongly doubt that I would have been on 
anyone's mailing list. I'm still no one's friend on MySpace.
     I'm not exactly sure what to make of the following piece I found on the 
net, either, except to say that the future is looking bullish for finding porn 
actresses. What this will do to supply side curves I couldn't say, but I'm 
already too old for any of these prepubescents to trickle down to me.
     Times Online
     WWW- A website that encourages girls as young as 9 to embrace plastic 
surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure was condemned 
as lethal by parents� groups and healthcare experts yesterday.
     The Miss Bimbo internet game has attracted prepubescent girls who are 
told to buy their virtual characters breast enlargement surgery and to keep them 
�waif thin� with diet pills.
     Healthcare professionals, a parents� group and an organization 
representing people suffering anorexia and bulimia criticized the website for sending a 
dangerous message to impressionable children.
     In the month since it opened the site, which is aimed at girls aged from 
9 to 16, has attracted 200,000 members. Players keep a constant watch on the 
weight, wardrobe, wealth and happiness of their character to create �the 
coolest, richest and most famous bimbo in the world.� Competing against other 
children they earn �bimbo dollars� to buy plastic surgery, diet pills, facelifts, 
lingerie and fashionable nightclub outfits.
     The website sparked controversy when it was introduced in France, where 
it attracted 1.2 million players.
     Dee Dawson, the medical director of Rhodes Farm Clinic, which treats 
girls aged from 8 to 18 who suffer eating disorders, said: �This is as lethal as 
pro-anorexia websites. A lot of children will get caught up with the extremely 
damaging and appalling messages.�
     Susan Ringwood, the chief executive of Beat, an organization that 
supports those suffering eating disorders, said that the website could make girls 
believe that weight and body size manipulation were acceptable.
     The Miss Bimbo site was set up by Nicholas Jacquart, a French 
entrepreneur. He moved to Tooting, South London, recently and with a 30-year-old 
businessman called Chris Evans set up Ouza Ltd. to promote the website in Britain.
     Its introduction came as research showed that children as young as 6 
were developing acute eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia. Yesterday it 
emerged that increasing numbers of teenagers were undergoing breast 
enlargement surgery.
     Registration on the Miss Bimbo site is free but it makes money by 
charging �1.50 per text message to buy �dollars� to spend on the characters. On the 
rules section it states that despite contestants wanting �to keep your bimbo 
waif thin . . . every girl needs to eat, every now and again.� It suggests 

feeding the character to prevent her dying of starvation.
     Bill Hibberd, a spokesman for Parentkind, a parents� group, said: �
Children�s innocence should be protected as far as possible. It depends on the 
mindset of the child but the danger is that after playing the game some will then 
aspire to have breast operations and take diet pills.
     �The danger is that a nine-year-old girl fails to appreciate the irony 
and sees the bimbo as a cool role model. Then the game becomes a hazard and a 
menace.�
     Mr. Jacquart claims the game teaches children about the real world and 
is simply harmless fun.
     He said: �The game is structured in such a way that it simply mirrors 
real life in a tongue-in-cheek way. It is not a bad influence for young 
children. They learn to take care of their bimbos. The missions and goals for the 
bimbos are morally sound and teach children about the real world.
     �If they eat too much chocolate in the game, it is bad for their bimbos�
 bodies and their happiness levels compared to if they eat fruit and 
vegetables, which reinforces positive healthy eating messages.
     �The breast operations are just one part of the game and we are not 
encouraging young girls to have them.�

     Mr. Evans admitted that the story in the script had been created by �lads
� and no professional advice was sought about how girls may interpret issues 
surrounding weight loss and gain.
     Nick Williams, from Shrewsbury, Shropshire, said that he was appalled 
when he saw his daughters Katie, 9, and Sarah, 14, on the site pondering whether 
to buy their character breast operations and facelifts.
     Mr. Williams, 42, said: �I noticed them looking at possible breast 
operations and facelifts at the game�s plastic surgery clinic.
     �It is irresponsible of the site�s creators to be leading young girls 
astray. They are easily influenced at that age as to what is cool and these are 
not things they should be encouraged to aspire to before they are old enough 
to be making up their own minds.�
     Users are set targets:
     Level 7
     After you broke up with your boyfriend you went on an eating binge! Now 
it�s time to diet... Your target weight is less than 132lbs
     Level 9
     Have a nip and tuck operation for a brand new face. You�ve found work as 
a plus-size model. To gain those vivacious curves, you need to weigh more 
than 154lbs
     Level 10
     Summertime is coming up and bikini weather is upon us. You want to turn 
heads on the beach don�t you?
     Level 11
     Bigger is better! Have a breast operation
     Level 17
     There is a billionaire on vacation... You must catch his eye and his 
love! Good luck
     Of course I don't know what is going on with little girls, but I thank 
heaven I'm not a little boy, as even with my lifetime of inexperience, I 
couldn't deal with these future bimbos of America. Not to mention that I don't have 
a hundred long in my pocket. 
     And I don't know, either, if women are becoming more like men when it 
comes to porn. I'm not even sure what becoming more like men means. But I should 
think, hypothetically, that if women were the same as men (though I don't for 
a moment believe they are), and if what men are getting these days from porn 
is really what they want (and I'm not even sure that I believe that), then 
knowing that a cocksucker is born every moment (and should never be given an even 
break), I should be able to fool myself into thinking, all in the name of 
liberty, equality and sorority, as well as turnabout being fair play, that here, 
ipso facto, is what women must want�at least when it comes to buying porn to 
watch either alone, in the privacy of their own bedrooms, or with their so very 
lucky s/o's... God bless America:
     There would be a thousand new male porn actors every year, with the same 
25 actresses, none of whom would make the female viewer jealous.
     A scene would start when one of these new men walked around the swimming 
pool, perhaps in a breechcloth, perhaps in some pretorn dungarees, but never 
with shirt. He would oil his pecs and abs (and he would have both, even if 
they were implants), and he�d strut around showing off his wares.
     Eventually, the female director would come up to him, feel his cock, 
slap him on the butt, and ask him if he knew whom he was getting butt fucked by 
today. He wouldn�t know. The director would try to scare the actor by telling 
him how big our star's dildo was. 
     Meanwhile, inside the house, our actress would be eating bon bons and 
exchanging photos with friends on her cell. The guy would crawl into the room 
and immediately start eating her pussy, his drool dripping down his chin and 
onto his still oiled pecs and abs. If this were just a pussy sucking video, the 
actress would eventually squirt in his eye.If not, she might or might not suck 
on his cock, if only to get it wet until true Clintonian sex would begin. 
     The male actor will always be on the bottom, especially in the case of 
pool table sex, stairs sex, and kitchen countertop sex. For rug sex, the 
actress would be on the bottom, to better protect her knees from rug burn. 
     If this were an anal sex movie, she would, without any foreplay, spit on 
his asshole and then fuck the guy in the ass, seemingly without applying any 
other form of lube, using the biggest cock her strap on could hold. The man 
would look as happy as Kurt Lockwood, even if he really wasn't.
     However, if this was a boy/boy/girl scene, the two men would start out 
the scene sucking each other�s cocks and doing whatever it is that gay for pay 
guys do with one another (is there a way of only pretending to suck cock?). 
Eventually, our girl would enter and both men would stop playing with each other 
and would go down on her. She would eventually pile one guy on top of the 
other, belly to back, and strap-on both guys, one at a time, unless there was 
another girl involved, in which case both girls might DP each of the guys in turn 
while the other guy sat on the sofa and played with himself.
     When it came time for the girl to orgasm, she would orgasm, with no 
attention paid to the guy�if he actually did have to come, it would be a cream 
pie, and if the girl (or the director) wanted more, he would have to keep going, 
no matter how anticlimactic it might be (BTS, he would be permitted to run to 
the bathroom as often as necessary, the BTS cameragirl following his bouncing 
booty, and to drink plenty of bottled water, the better to watch him squirt 
into the toilet).
     The BTS director would also watch the guy try on his new boxer briefs, 
and would tell him what she wanted him to wear, asking if he'd ever worn his 
underwear on another shoot. Our newby would then be asked questions about his 
sex life, especially about when he first started to have sex with other men, and 
if he liked guys or girls better. He would not have to answer these questions 
honestly, of course, as who would believe that he first had sex with a guy at 
13 and girls at 14? He would be asked if his dad knew he was doing porn, and 
if he'd been disowned (there's no point in asking him what his high school 
buddies thought about his career�everyone knows they'd be jealous).
     If the BTS director was a male, he might ask the actor if he minded 
having his cock touched by a BTS director. Some actors don't appear to mind this 
at all.
     If there were a number of actors sitting around in make-up chairs, 
waiting for their scene to start, their conversation would be recorded, unless it 
was about sports or giving driving directions. 
     The camera would follow the male actor into the bathroom so that he 
could be filmed doing his enema, but if the he closed the door and refused to let 
the BTS director into the bathroom, this would be accepted. 
     The male performer would also be filmed when he showered after the 
scene, and he would be asked to leave cock and butt prints on the glass shower 
door.
     At least for the moment though, despite what you might hear from the 
Witches of Oz, porn still doesn't appear to be made for women, and is assuredly 
not made for least porn actresses, as Kayden Kross makes clear on 
mikesouth.com:
     I read through some of the recent posts before beginning my first one 
and I came across the one expressing the need for a female perspective� a word �
from the trenches.��I haven�t been�brutalized yet in this industry but the 
various things that broke me into porn are worth mentioning. Let�s recap a year 
of learning and awkwardness in porn:
     First movie: It was not five minutes into shooting that I realized with 
horror that the penis at hand would not be entering my mouth for purely 
mechanical reasons. It was simply too large. I also took advantage of the situation 
and became the only girl in history to ask Manuel Ferrara if it was in yet. At 
that point my pussy was numb from the shock.
     Second movie: It was here I learned that I had been doing anal wrong for 
six years. I had always assumed that simply sticking it in was fine. Kylie 
Ireland was kind enough to teach me the dieting plans, cleansing rituals, and 
toy-in-the-make-up-chair tricks necessary to �do� anal. To this day I have not 
done it right.
     Third movie: I learned the nuances of wearing a strap on. Learned is an 
overstatement. I attempted.�I�also learned that some girls can �lose� enemas 
in their bodies and the contents can reappear much much later at the most 
inopportune times �.
     Fourth/Fifth movie: with no script, no make up artist, and catered with 
McDonald�s, we managed a movie. Or two. I learned I had signed with the wrong 
company.
     Sixth movie: I finally walked through the perpetual enema juice on the 
bathroom floor without slipping, wincing, or gagging. This was a milestone.
     Seventh movie:   A girl got me off. This was unchartered territory. I 
learned that certain dildo materials cause reactions similar to those of pepper 
spray when applied to the back of the throat.
     Eighth movie: I got peed on. It should be known that this was not in the 
script (and the fact that i have to specify that should tell you something as 
well).
     I�m sure the stories will get bigger and better in the coming 
years.�The�industry so far�has�been easy on me.�Maybe next time I�ll go into the things I
�ve learned off set about porn. The best things aren�t caught on camera. 
     Actually, to be honest, I don't think American porn will ever be for 
women, though it doesn't necessarily have to be against them, either. Those Abby 
Winters watching Aussies are probably being honest when they tell us they 
don't want to see "violence, abuse or rape." They might not even want to watch 
choking, spitting and humiliation. But as long as there are differences between 
the sexes, and in what they really want, and men want their porn more than 
women want theirs, more male driven porn is going to get shot.                
Whether men actually do want (or juries will permit) "violence, abuse and rape" or 
even choking, spitting and humiliation remains the truly important question, 
a question the porn industry is starting to have to deal with as sales of 
gonzo go down, and the government comes down on companies like Evil Angel and JM.
     When porn really is for women, we'll know it from the number of hard 
drive crashes women report, the number of unexplained credit card charges... and 
the number of women taking stretch limos to the male brothels in the desert 
sands of Nevada.